The number of children with education, health and care plans or statements has increased by 35% in five years.
Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

The scale of the crisis gripping services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) has been laid bare by research that indicates council budgets are facing a potential funding shortfall of more than £500m.

A survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) of the councils it represents in England projects a £536m funding gap this year as a result of growing demand for Send services – more than double last year’s shortfall.

The interim findings, announced on Thursday at the National Children and Adult Services conference in Manchester, come as local authorities face legal challenges over planned cuts to services.

A number of families have also launched legal action against the government, which they accuse of failing to properly fund councils to provide vital services for their children.

The LGA says the shortfall is “putting at risk the ability of councils to meet their statutory duties” to children with Send, and is urging the government to provide more funding in the local government finance settlement next month.

Many parents say local authorities are already failing to meet their legal responsibilities and complain of long battles and repeated appeals to tribunals to try to secure the support to which their children are legally entitled.

Families from Surrey and the London borough of Hackney are awaiting judgments from the high court after challenging planned cuts, while parents in Bristol have forced their council to reverse proposed savings.

Councils say services are overstretched because of increased demand and insufficient funding. The number of children and young people with education, health and care plans or statements – legal documents that detail the additional support to which a child is entitled – has increased by 35% in five years, from 237,111 to 319,819.

The number of children and young people being educated in specialist schools and colleges went up by 24% during the same period. Many have to be bussed long distances, at great expense to councils, often to more costly independent provision, as a result of earlier cuts to specialist services.

Anntoinette Bramble, the chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “We face a looming crisis in meeting the unprecedented rise in demand for support from children with special educational needs and disabilities.

“Parents rightly expect and aspire to see that their child has the best possible education and receives the best possible support. Councils have pulled out all the stops to try and do this but are reaching the point where the money is simply not there to keep up with demand.”

She said mainstream schools were being “pushed to the brink” by Send underfunding, at a time when their budgets were already severe pressure.

“This risks creating a perfect storm, where not only does this mean schools can’t provide the extra support pupils with Send need, but it means other pupils and teachers suffer the consequences of funding being squeezed on a daily basis, by not getting the support in the classroom that they need.”

The LGA findings show councils have overspent their allocated Send budgets for the past four years. To try to make ends meet they have in the past taken additional funds from the general schools budget, but the government has tightened up the system, making it harder for councils to move money around.

The LGA research is based on responses from 73 local authorities – about half of those with Send responsibilities – and reveals a £280m deficit by the end of 2018-19. Scaled up to include all the relevant councils, the total national deficit on Send funding stands at £536m, the LGA says.

“As our interim research shows, there is a significant shortfall in funding, which we urge the government to address in next month’s local government finance settlement, and we are keen to work with ministers to bring this about,” Bramble said.

Nadhim Zahawi, the children and families minister, said: “Local authorities and schools have statutory duties to support children and young people with Send. In 2018-19, councils will receive £6bn of funding for young people with more complex Send – an increase from £5bn in 2013.

“However, we recognise that local authorities are facing cost pressures on high needs which is why we are monitoring local authority spending decisions and keeping the overall level of funding under review. As part of this, we will be very interested to see the LGA’s final report.”